Working with deafblind people

Education

Most deafblind children and adults have some remaining vision and hearing that can be channelled with appropriate education and services. This support requires highly specialised and tailor-made assessment, communication and education.

We follow the Individualised Educational Plan (IEP), a unique strategy that recognises and respects each child as having unique abilities and supports an educational plan that is developed around the needs and capacity of an individual child. The IEP is based on exhaustive initial screening and assessment by a multi disciplinary team consisting of an ophthalmologist, audiologist, psychologist, special educators, occupational/physiotherapist, mobility instructor and family members.

The education of deafblind children is then complimented through training of their parents and family members.

Special Schools in Partner NGOs

Most special schools in India serve children with a single disability, such as blindness or deafness; children with multiple disabilities are often left out. So Sense International India has helped to establish special education units within schools for children with single disability such as blindness, deafness, cerebral palsy, etc to serve deafblind children aged 4–14 years.

After intensive training in the special education unit, depending on their abilities children are admitted to mainstream schools alongside their sighted peers. This allows deafblind children to gain independence and become part of mainstream life.

Partnership with Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

We have partnered with the government of India's 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' (Education for All) programme. Through this partnership, we are building capacity of government teachers across the country on appropriate teaching techniques for deafblind children in mainstream schools. Currently, through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, we are reaching out to more than 63,500+ deafblind children in some of the most disadvantaged areas in India.

Training to earn Livelihood

We also develop the skills of deafblind youth and adults to earn a livelihood. We are supporting vocational training units across the country to help deafblind young adults learn a specific trade or skill to lead a productive life. Currently we are training nearly 430 deafblind individuals who will soon be gainfully employed.